Queensland Railways Steam Engines Portfolio
by Kim Thurlow

 I'm a guy who's run a few gauntlets, made a few friends, and generally amassed very little of anything apart from memories.
So I thought I would share some Queensland, Australia images that I managed to preserve on photograph. I still get a great deal of pleasure from these, because they were taken with a little postwar 2.1/4 square twin lens Russian made camera. Usually before or after school. Then my dad would help me fix up the bathroom in the evening to process the negatives and run some prints.

 I sold vegetables grown in the family garden, around the neigbourhood, to pay for the film and the chemical stuff. I can still remember my marketing catchcry " These are a little cheaper than the green-grocer, but they've only just been picked, so they are MUCH fresher". We even competed against the kids next door, but always managed to knock on doors on different days, or in different streets. There was an unwritten rule that there was some business for each of us.

Year 1961. Class C19 type 4-8-0 "Centenary" #702 at Harristown yard near Toowoomba. So called beacause it was the 100th locomotive built by the Queensland Railways workshops at Ipswich near Brisbane. Built in 1923. This locomotive was written off the books in 1962, diesels having become available to handle its duties. The 4-8-0 was the main type of freight and heavy passenger locomotive in Queensland in the 20th century. This wheel arrangement was not popular in North America and UK.

Note the tarpaulin covered wagons, a typical feature of Queensland goods carriage.

Being part of a railway town, the Toowoomba Chronicle newspaper often had articles on railway progress overseas.

 

 To the Trains

 

This site is dedicated to Mum and Dad, and to working railwaymen everywhere.


 Visit my poem to the steam engine.

For those wanting a definitive reference work on the steam locomotives of the Queensland Railways,
I recommend Locomotives in the Tropics, Volumes 1 and 2, by John Armstrong,
publ. Australian Railways Historical Society, 1985 and 1994.

I also wish to acknowledge assistance given me, by David Lord of NSW, in preparing some of my transparency images for this site.

Links:

Some quality historical photos of Queensland steam

Interesting selection of Queensland rail images and commentary by Colin Power

My club - Union Pacific Model Railway Club, Brisbane Australia

Big engines - my N&W Portfolio on the steam era Norfolk and Western Railway, USA

Email me.

Link to my business web site, I sell Global Positioning System (GPS), in-car navigation, and related equipment.

 I have no official connection with Queensland Railways corporate, past or present.
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